KNOC launches £1.7bn hostile bid for Dana August 20, 2010 State-run Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) has made a hostile $2.6bn (£1.7bn) cash bid for Dana Petroleum, reflecting South Korea’s growing urgency to boost oil reserves. Seoul gave KNOC a $6.5bn warchest this year to compete with energy-hungry Asian state firms aiming to secure future supplies for their growing economies. Chinese and other firms have [...]
Rio Tinto boss hopes to forge stronger ties with state-owned firms in China August 19, 2010 GLOBAL miner Rio Tinto hopes to see further cooperation with China’s state-owned firms after its tie-up with Chinese aluminium giant Chalco, Rio Tinto’s boss yesterday. Tom Albanese, chief executive, also said the company was willing to help China seek mineral resources at home and abroad. “The partnership with Chalco opens the potential for further cooperation [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 17, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES CRIMINAL GANGS TARGET INSIDER DEALING Organised criminals in the UK are becoming increasingly involved in financial frauds including insider share dealing that they see as lucrative and low risk, investigators have warned. A long-term trend of prosecutions in the US has shown the same shift by crime gangs to more sophisticated frauds. FUNDING [...]
China surges past Japan in symbolic shift August 16, 2010 CHINA’S per capita annual income is just $3,600 (£2,299) compared to Japan’s $37,800 but in the second quarter of this year the once impoverished communist state surged past Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy. The faltering Japanese economy grew by just 0.1 per cent in the three months to June, an annualised pace of [...]
Dax fortunes depend on the East August 15, 2010 WITH data for German GDP growth of 2.2 per cent smashing expectations of 0.6 per cent on Friday, traders are wondering whether any of this second quarter growth spurt can be retained – and what it means for equities indices. Despite this good news, the Dax actually fell from over 6,160 to under 6,080 after [...]
Eastern lights: Asia’s sleepless city August 15, 2010 A BRILLIANT meeting of East and West, it offers an unforgettable introduction to the Orient, and is the perfect place to explore a different culture while taking in the rugby at the Hong Kong Sevens (and, for the sports-mad, the golf at the Hong Kong Open Championship and the horse-racing at Happy Valley). Or just [...]
BlackBerry rocked by India ban fears August 12, 2010 BLACKBERRY-MAKER Research In Motion (RIM) yesterday moved one step closer to a potentially disastrous ban in India. A meeting with authorities was “inconclusive” and the superpower has given the firm until the end of the month to address its concerns. India is worried that BlackBerry’s encrypted data can be used by terrorists such as those [...]
China’s industrial activity is still slowing August 11, 2010 CHINESE industrial production growth slowed for the second consecutive month in July, fueling fears that its economy was losing steam. Output rose by 13.4 per cent year-on-year in July. This was slightly below the 13.7 registered in June and significantly down on the 16.5 per cent reading in May. The cooling off in the industrial [...]
Pressures are building for a stronger renminbi August 11, 2010 AT THE start of this year, China was considered the only hope for global growth. But, for investors who wanted to get a slice of the pie and piled into the stock market, it has been a frustrating time. The Shanghai Composite Index is one of the worst-performing global stocks markets, having lost nearly a [...]
Jitters ahead of Bank’s Inflation Report as miners, banks and energy shares lose August 10, 2010 BRITAIN’S top shares were lower yesterday as investors nervously awaited the outcome of the Bank of England’s quarterly Inflation Report due today and commodity shares were hit by demand concerns following weak Chinese data. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was down 34.11 points, or 0.6 per cent, at 5,376.41, having ended at its [...]